>given that illumination is supposed to be reached by NOT trying for it
>(sort of a Calvinist "election" model?) and that its results are supposed
>to be unpredictable, including insanity and loss of pre-existing
>beliefs (though not in all cases) how can a bureaucracy be built upon such
>an uncertain base?
I think that Illumination can be found by 'trying for it'. What LoT said was that if one was seeking it in order to exploit it then one is unlikely to become illuminated. This is miles away from asking around for a Teacher of Illumination so that the great mysteries of life can be 'explained'.
The Lunar hierarchy have a set list of questions so that when the seeker becomes Illuminated, she does not become mentally deranged as well. Many independant Nysalorean Preachers attack these canonical questions as leading the Seeker into a state of awareness which predisposes them to accept the corrupt status quo as 'the best of all possible worlds'. Some have even gone so far as to attack the Lunar Church as 'Gravediggers of the Red Moon'.
The Street Preachers, Freethinkers and Rebel Philosophers have their own standard questions which vary from school to school. Their canon is incomplete, but they make up for it with by knowing Potent Questions that have been Proscribed. They say that the asking of these Questions allows the Seeker to attain a heightened state of Illumination which does not cause 'wholesale acceptance of the Creed and Practices of the Lunar Church'. However these forbidden questions are dangerous according to the Lunar Authorities in that they cause various types of insanity when the Seeker becomes Illuminated. For instanse, the Heretics of Vitality seek to become undead because they know the riddle lore of the Vampire Kings of Tanisor. The Questions of the White Moon Heretics causes the seeker to become totally Pacific and Useless to Society.
Accept No Substitutes!
Seek Illumination from Authorized Sources Only!
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